Concert Reports

Iration

01/24/2014, Ventura Theater

IRATION kicked off 2014 by doing what they love so much, hitting the road to play music and hang out with their fans. The reggae-influenced rockers embarked on the coast-to-coast “Automatic Winter Tour”–with support from Natural Vibrations, The Movement and select dates with Micah Brown–began January 24 in Ventura, CA, weaving their way across the U.S. to Florida and wrapping back around to close out March 22 in Anaheim, CA. Tickets for the tour are ON SALE via irationmusic.com. This Spring, IRATION will again take the main stage at the 5th Annual California Roots Music & Arts Festival happening May 23-25, 2014 in Monterey,CA. Tickets are on sale now at CaliforniaRootsFestival.eventbrite.com.

Last year represented a period of growth for the Hawaiian-bred, Santa Barbara-based band, with their career elevating to a new level. Armed with their third full-length album AUTOMATIC, IRATION–Micah Pueschel (Guitar/Vocals), Joe Dickens (Drums), Adam Taylor (Bass) and Cayson Peterson (Keyboards)–further pushed their musical boundaries, with an emphasis on the craft of songwriting, while staying true to the sound their fans love. The band collaborated with Cage The Elephant guitarist Lincoln Parish who is featured on several tracks and helped co-produce select songs on the album along with long-time studio partner JP Hesser of Castaway 7 Studios in Ventura, CA.

“To me, Automatic is very, very different from [2010 album] Time Bomb,” MICAH told the Phoenix New Times. “It’s still us, but what made Time Bomb a popular record was hooks, feel-good music, good rhythms–uplifting, for the most part. But we also wanted to do more songs that were geared to traditional roots reggae and have some rock influences. We wanted to experiment and do some acoustics…Automatic is much more diverse and eclectic as far as style. Another way is that the lyrical content is more mature.

“We worked with Lincoln Parish and he brought a lot of the rock. We wanted more rock. Every record that we’ve made has had a different set of influences. When we first started out we were really focused on making reggae tracks. With [2008 EP] Sample This and Time Bomb it was more pop and reggae and then we strayed from that sound a bit with [2011 EP] Fresh Grounds. Then with Automatic we wanted to make a record that had all of things we’ve already done but with more of a rock element.” (9/14/13)

The new direction paid off as the release of AUTOMATIC is their most successful release to date. The 16-track collection immediately shot all the way up to the #1 spot on both the Billboard and iTunes Reggae Albums charts, as well as #7 on the iTunes Overall Albums chart, #75 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart and #17 on the Billboard Independent Albums chart.

A music video for the album’s first official single “Back Around” has garnered over 68,000 views on YouTube. Watch the video–shot in IRATION’s Santa Barbara, CA hometown–here: http://youtu.be/2dqJQJ3Ievs. The song also received radio airplay nationwide, reaching #1 on most stations’ playlists where it was added, including spending several weeks at #1 for San Diego’s 91X.

Iration is an alternative/reggae group of musicians formed in Isla Vista, CA. The group is made up of members Joseph Dickens (drums), Joseph King (Engineer), Cayson Peterson (Keyboard/Synth), Micah Pueschel (Guitar/Vox) and Adam Taylor (Bass). All members met while growing up in Hawaii but formed Iration after reconnecting in Santa Barbara, CA. They have since released: two full-length albums, Time Bomb (2010) and No Time for Rest (2007), as well as three EP’s, New Roots (2006), Sample This EP (2008) and Fresh Grounds (2011). The third full-length album Automatic by Iration was released on July 2, 2013. The album combines elements of reggae, rock and pop to create a truly unique listening experience - including additional production and instrumentation from Lincoln Parish, as well as the band’s previous studio partner JP Hesser of Castaway 7 Studios in Ventura CA.